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Hi everyone! I hope y’all had a great weekend – I had my annual bake day on Sunday, which somehow always goes from “Yay, bake time!” to “Omg, why do I subject myself to this every year?!” approximately 4 hours and/or a couple of singed fingers later (note to self: the cookie sheet you just took out of the oven is hot. Hot.). They’re all shipped off, though, and now I have one whole year to forget about it until my next “Yay, bake time!” moment. 😉

Random pic that has nothing to do with the post of the beautiful sunrise taken today after my workout!

Anyway, now that I’m an old pro at being debt-free (ha!) and completed my primary 2013 goal, I thought I would share some of my 2014 goals:

1) Stay debt-free. Experience has taught me that as challenging as it can be to take something off, it can be just as challenging, if not more, to keep it off and manage it correctly. It’s like a diet – you might make some changes that could lead you to lose a ton of weight, but if you don’t learn the correct lifestyle skills to keep the weight off, then you might be more susceptible to slip ups or regressions. This becomes more important as the wedding nears, since I’ve heard from friends that towards the end, some became carried away and spent quite a bit, so hopefully I won’t fall into that.

2) Have a ‘savings’ rate of 40-45% – I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s somewhat misleading since it’s going towards a down payment for our ‘forever’ house (assumes we keep our current place/rent it out) and hopefully future little ones funds, but this will also include investing and regular ol’ savings. We’re also transitioning in combining our finances early next year, as we’ve agreed upon keeping our personal accounts and siphoning off a flat rate for our discretionary funds (I proposed % rate since he makes more, but he was okay with flat), and then funneling the rest to joint accounts. Combining will make our projected savings rate even greater, but I still want to make sure I’m doing my part in not only keeping costs down, but exploring how to increase my current intake level, as well.

3) Read 24 books. Did you know Mackenzie and Mochimac are reading machines? They inspired me to read more often, especially since I’ve noticed I’ve been watching TV frequently which is no good. I won’t count books for work, but rather ones for pure leisure or that revolves around personal finance/investing. I’m probably setting the bar low with this goal compared to avid readers, but what can I say, I’m easily distracted (I’m looking at you, Buzzfeed!).

4) Continue with Spanish. This is particularly important as we’re paying a visit to a couple of South American countries in 2014 (more on this soon!), and I’m the only one that can somewhat hablo.

5) Learn one new Filipino dish, and one new German dish, each month (alternate each month as to keep it less lofty). Consider this my nesting period, but once we have kids, I want them to not only know about their cultural heritage, but also grow up on the same comfort foods that I grew up with (sinigang or arroz caldo on cold rainy days? Yes please!). It sounded like B also grew up with some German dishes, so I’d like to learn this since I predominantly cook ‘American’ dishes and a ton of stir fry at home.

I’m not adding any fitness goals since I’m pretty consistent with doing something active 4-6 times a week, plus I’m running a half with Tonya (woo hoo!) – so long as I stay healthy and able, it’s all good.